The Glass Castle and The Color of Water are two evocative memoirs whose use of literary devices portray stories of troubled childhoods up to successful futures. The authors of these works use both imagery and similes to add meaning to the text; however, they differ in their use of diction and humor. Jeannette Walls uses concrete diction and a unique way of conveying humor while James McBride uses abstract diction and conveys humor in a more traditional manor. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The effective use of imagery by both McBride and Walls helps reveal their inspiring life stories. Although McBride and Walls both use imagery, Walls' imagery is more detail-oriented than McBride's imagery, thus making Walls' diction style more concrete than McBride's abstract style. “That afternoon I was alone in the house, still enjoying the itchy, dry sensation of chlorine-scrubbed skin and the bone-shaking sensation you get after lots of exercise, when I heard a knock on the door (Page 193).” This is an example of Walls' imagery. His use of such descriptive words leaves little to the reader's imagination. Another example of how Walls uses imagery is: “The main street is wide, with sun-bleached cars and pickups parked at an angle to the sidewalk, but only a few blocks long, lined on both sides by low-roofed buildings plate made of bricks. or brick (Page 51).” Additionally, “…a dark Spanish dining table with eight matching chairs, a hand-carved upright piano, sideboards with antique silver serving sets, and glass-fronted cabinets filled with grandmother’s china… (Page 94 )” is another example of how Walls uses imagery to convey a vivid image to the reader. By using descriptive words so pronounced, he not only exemplifies his mastery of imagery but also his prolific method of concrete diction. McBride also uses imagery as shown by “It is what made the river flow, swell the ocean, and rise the tide, but it was a silent, intractable, indomitable, unquestionable, and therefore completely ignorable power (page 94).” His images are more conceptual in nature. Another example of this is: "I imagined her as the wise sage, sitting in a rocking chair, impassively pouring the moving details of her life into my waiting tape recorder for six weeks, maybe two months, me prodding her , she who collaborated, submitted, advancing slowly, mother and son, struggling forward, emotionally beaten, until—page 267-268).” Once again McBride portrays his imagery in a broader way; the reader gets a picture of the idea, not an exact representation of the scene as in Walls' work. McBride's use of imagery demonstrates his style more conceptual, making his method of diction abstract. Although imagery was a literary device used frequently by both authors, it was not the only one that helped them create these worthy memoirs they used a large amount of similes to help further explain the meaning of the text , but when the good Lord climbed upon their bones and lifted them to Sweet Freedom, kind and gentle women who ruffled my hair and.